Bethel Woods opens ambitious new chamber music series

Can New York Philharmonic put venue on classical map?

Sure, megastars ranging from the Eagles and Elton John to Bob Dylan and Dave Matthews have helped earn Bethel Woods Center for the Arts a reputation as one of the nation's premier performing arts centers for pop music.

Sure, megastars ranging from the Eagles and Elton John to Bob Dylan and Dave Matthews have helped earn Bethel Woods Center for the Arts a reputation as one of the nation's premier performing arts centers for pop music. But even with annual performances by one of the world's great orchestras, the New York Philharmonic (which is taking a break from Bethel Woods this year), the $150 million arts center at the site of the 1969 Woodstock Music & Art Fair hasn't created the same buzz in the classical world.

That will change if one of the principal members of the Philharmonic has anything to do with it.

The Philharmonic's associate principal cellist, Eileen Moon of Warwick, is presenting Bethel Woods' first chamber music series, "Sundays With Friends," which debuts Sunday with two of the brightest young stars in the classical world, violinist Jennifer Koh and pianist Benjamin Hochman. Theirs is the first of five spring and fall chamber music concerts, indoors in the Event Gallery.

"The idea is to put Bethel Woods on the map in the classical music world. It's already on the map in the pop world," said Moon Tuesday during a break from a typically busy day of rehearsing and recording with the Philharmonic and teaching music at New York University.

And the best way to do that, says Moon, is to create a buzz in — and outside — the world of Bach, Bartok and Beethoven.

"The goal is to have really great classical music in an intimate, beautiful venue so it becomes word-of-mouth marketing, which is the best marketing," says Moon, who has also presented chamber music in Warwick, where the woman with six dogs is also a founder of the Friends of Warwick Valley Humane Society.

It's also a way for the Philharmonic to continue a relationship with Bethel Woods that began nearly seven years ago, when the orchestra opened the arts center that its guest conductor, Bramwell Tovey, then called "the best, best-est outdoor facility in the whole world."

That's one reason former Philharmonic President Zarin Mehta was trying to "implement" such a chamber music series, says Moon. When Mehta announced he was retiring, Moon says he asked her if she wanted to take over the series.

So Moon — who's been performing chamber music since she went to "chamber music parties" as a child in California — recruited some of the brightest classical music stars, who won't just perform, but will speak to the audiences from the stage.

"It gives the concerts a personal touch," says Moon, a touch she hopes will help put the series, and Bethel Woods, on the classical music map.